Protest Art, De-Indoctrination

During the George Floyd protests last year, statues of white supremacists were toppled from their pedestals in cities around the world. In Portland, an anonymous artist installed a newly made sculpture where an old one had been, at the top of a sleeping volcano in the middle of a popular park. The City Commissioner in charge of parks decided to allow the sculpture to remain in place and instructed that a plaque be installed, telling some of York’s story. (See extra for closeup of the statue. I am not sure what it's made of, but it was installed by dark of night, and the artist remains anonymous.)

York was an enslaved laborer “owned” by William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark expedition). Clark “inherited” York in 1799 when Clark was 29 and York was 27. Clark referred to York as “my boy,” all their lives. York made it possible for Clark to endure the expedition by hunting and cooking for his “master,” carrying heavy burdens, washing clothing, fighting off predatory animals, and enduring many hours of hard labor. York, a man named Charbonneau, and his Indian wife Sacagawea made it possible for the expedition to achieve its ambition: to find a route from the east coast to the Pacific so that people of European descent could settle and exploit the land (and incidentally massacre a great many native people or relegate them to reservations on undesirable land).

After the explorers returned from the expedition, York asked for his freedom and Clark refused to grant it. 

The poet Frank X Walker has written a remarkable book, When Winter Come: The Ascension of York, which tells the story of York as a series of poems that give voice to York and those who knew him, including the women who loved him, the European men who used him, Sacagawea, and the Native Americans who respected him. Even York’s knife and his hatchet have voice in the poems.

Here is an excerpt of one written in the voice of Clark:

“Master of His Own Domain”

****
I have had to give the lash to almost all my people
since my return,
as they had developed a most sour attitude
which had begun to affect their work.

****
Others think me cruel for not granting manumission
to my boy, York, but what rational business man
would cut a hole in his own purse?

And here is an excerpt of one in the voice of York:

“Murmuration”

I seen a flock a large birds
change direction at the same time
as if they be a the same mind
or listen to the same drum
like whirling dancers waiting for the break. 

***

Like our people, Indians believe
even the animals share a master drummer
but the captains think we the only ones 
that know how to dance.

Walker’s work is stunning. Some of the poems in the voices of women who loved York are too erotic to post on this site. Read it if you can, and learn more about York, about enslavement, and about the history of the USA that is not taught in our schools.